Rob Maness: Rick Perry Pick as Energy Secretary Is ‘About Jobs’

Retired Air Force Colonel and former energy executive Rob Maness told Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Thursday he thinks “eliminating the radical regulations that have been put in place that have hampered the energy business across all sectors” is something “Governor Perry is going to tackle right away” when confirmed as head of the Department of Energy (DOE).

“Eliminating those regulations,” said Maness, “will allow those companies that are in those sectors to be able to look at new technologies, look at innovation, which creates jobs. And all of those energy jobs, if you look at what happened in Texas, create even larger impacts on things like the construction sector. … It’s not just the oil and gas industry.”

“The mining industry and the logging industry were actually the largest producers of jobs” in Texas under Perry, “and oil and gas was second after that,” Maness added.

Perry endorsed Maness in his recent run for a Louisiana U.S. Senate seat.

Texas, under Perry’s governorship, “created over 1.4 million jobs during the great recession, so I think it’s about jobs,” continued Maness.

Maness also highlighted regulations on nuclear energy and new “carbon friendly” reactor technology as areas where Perry could have a big impact at DOE. “I think Governor Perry’s all-of-the-above energy approach is going to have a huge impact on that,” he said.